I’m going to write this one a bit differently because I have eight batches and I can’t imagine anyone wanting to sort through all of those recipes. In general, you can refer to my basic mead recipe in “Mead Making 101. Six of these mead batches are made with ye old Sam’s club honey – inexpensive and accessible. In general all of these meads came out well, with some minor variations in flavor. The first few were made using yeast nutrients and energizers. Granted, they did ferment quicker, so if you want something that is ready in a year instead of 2-3, go this route.

Some stories about these meads:

Number 14 and 15 are interesting to me. I made them on the same day, with the same yeast, and the same Sam’s Club honey. I Racked them over on the same dates, had them in the same environments, treated them the same way. I wanted to have a ready supply of regular mead because this was quickly become our favorite “mead of choice.” The only difference between the two was that one was made with old honey, one with newer honey. #14 was ready in about a year and a half. After that amount of time, #15 wasn’t anywhere near ready. After using a number of products to clarify it, to no avail, I decided to add some scotch to it. (I was inspire to do so after having a lovely evening drinking Lurgashall fortified mead.) Overnight, that mead clarified! That was quite a shocker and a very pleasant surprise. I must say, I REALLY enjoyed that fortified mead!

I have a colleague at my mundane job who has friends who are bee keepers. We were talking one day about mead. The next day, I had 15 pounds of honey on my desk! (Thanks Allie!) This honey, I am told, comes from purple loosestrife flowers, which is an invasive species right now in Maine. Though the flowers/weed may be frowned upon, the mead came out so lovely. It continued to ferment, ever so slighlty, in the bottle, so most of the bottles were a bit on the sparkling side. MEAD CHAMPANGE! So, so, wonderful!

At PENNSIC in 2008, #19 or “Allie’s Mead” recieved a score of 96 at the IKBG panneling. Yay!

I have another batch of “Allie’s mead” (#31) going and another 15 pounds of honey ready to go as soon as I have an empty carboy.

Two batches – 27 and 30 are earmarked to become fortified meads. Number 27 is going to be given to some good friends who should never, ever, buy commercial mead. Number 30 has been given to my husband, Vey, who plans to fortify it for his “private stock.”